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Hi, friend. I hope the start of your week is going well so far. Today I'm sharing with you this month's mega post of things that I consider to have equipped and/or inspired me over the past few weeks. Let's get right to it and I hope you find something that would pique your interest.

It's unbelievable how close we are to our first year as husband and wife—this month it will be 10 months since we became one flesh. There have been lessons aplenty and I've gotten to know myself more as I discover other facets of Carlo's personality in increasing measure. We are grateful that we're spending our first year of marriage here in our little apartment up in the mountains. We are also grateful that even prior to our wedding, we've been led to some resources that have helped shape our view of marriage, improve our communication, and assist in our adjustment. Below are five important books that we read before tying the knot.

There was a time when I got hooked on taking personality tests. I just had this incredible hunger to know and interpret myself, partly in the spirit of Paul Ricoeur's narrative framework to make sense of the complex human experience.

I took several online Myers-Briggs-like tests and read many definitions of the four-letter types before I finally concluded that I'm an INFJ. My INFJ-ness was also confirmed by the Strengths Finder test ,which I took with Carlo a couple years ago.

My top 5 strengths are Connectedness , Learner, Intellection, Input, and Empathy. Having Learner and Intellection as strengths means that I always have to be feeding myself with new information. This fits well with my introversion since I could spend hours just reading, writing, mulling over ideas, and/or learning something new. In addition to learning new things and thinking about ideas, I file them away for use in the future. Thus, I also love to categorize/organize this stored knowledge. Empathy is best exercised in real life settings and this again fits with my introversion. Small talk would be the death of me but expect me to listen intently and deeply when we talk about your story. Understanding myself a bit better gives me deep satisfaction. Knowing why I do what I do and what really excites me saves me a lot of frustration, and it also keeps me from being someone that I'm not.

And so, to honor, enrich, and operate in my strengths and personality, I came up with this bi-monthly or monthly roundup I'm dubbing EQUIP + INSPIRE. Since 2016 started, I noticed that I've been setting aside more time to engage in things that teach, challenge, and inspire me. This is in addition to my morning time with the Lord. By blogging about it, it is simultaneously a nurturing of and activation of who I am. To further illustrate what I'm attempting to do, the very act of blogging activates my Learner, Intellection, and Input strengths.

The Learner watches a video, listens to a podcast or an album, reads, and tries new things.Intellection thinks and reflects further.Input files away in categories, so thatEmpathy and Connectedness can listen and share these new things for growth and delight, which also feeds the Learner theme.

Like I said, my personal Equip + Inspire time begins with my morning time with the Lord. As I walk with him throughout the day, I also reflect on the gifts, desires, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities he gave me specifically. No matter what permutation my personality traits take, the goal is always the same: personal growth and seeing others grow into their God-given potential, too.

Equip + Inspire will then be a mix of books, articles, art, sermons, podcasts, links, and a bunch of other resources that, well, equip and inspire me. I hope that my personal project will be of help to you, as well.

-wise words from Antoine De Saint-Exupéry for every person out there who wrote down
resolutions/goals for the new year, myself included.

In this post I’m sharing my 2016 goals, the least groundbreaking way to update the blog for the New Year :)) I’ve previously written annual goals but this is actually the
first time I broke them up into quarterly lists. I want to consistently expose
myself to these goals so I have them in my planner, on our kitchen whiteboard (for monthly priorities), and I also plan to blog about each month's progress.

I spent some time reflecting last December and I used the holiday break to dream and think about 2016. But even with these goals in mind, paper, and blog, I submit to whatever it is the Lord wants to do in my life this year. I desire to go through these goals in fear and trembling before the Lord, in constant prayer to make sure that these plans are aligned with his will. I want to enjoy the freedom I have in his lordship, where I neither hold on too tight to my goals nor do I go about the year by winging it in the name of "openness" to his plans.

Having said that, here's what I hope to accomplish over the next twelve glorious months. And like what the quote said, goals need plans so in my planner, I've written specific action items for most of the goals but I did not include them here. Also, most of the goals I'll pursue throughout the year are in the 1st Quarter since I'm jump-starting them this January.

Hi there!

Hi! This is Patricia :) I'm a recent Southern California transplant who enjoys working with words, either in reading or crafting them together. I'm also enthusiastic about blogging, culture care, and learning new things. I'm married to an amazing drummer/writer and I love Jesus above all. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you stay awhile!